Carino Tapas Bar Melbourne

Summary

Spanish inspired Carino Tapas Bar is located in the lovely Melbourne suburb, Ascot Vale. Since its inception in 2011, they have been serving traditional Valencian-style tapas, raciones (larger dishes), paellas and postres (desserts) to the delight of their patrons. Contradictory to the bad online reviews about their customer service, they did a damn good job of keeping us happy during our evening meal. If you’re dining here, leave room for the yummy churros.

Carino Tapas Bar Melbourne

 

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Carino Tapas Bar located in the Ascot Vale area of Melbourne has been around since its opening in 2011. Owner Isabel McGeary and her three daughters have created a lovely Madrid-inspired restaurant. This tapas bar cooks up a great selection of home-made tapas, raciones (larger dishes), paella and postres (desserts), all of which stem from great Valencian traditions.

There are two dining areas in this restaurant – the dining room in the front and an outdoor area in the back. The outdoor area in the back has been transformed into a Spanish style patio.

The decor in the dining room is quite in keeping with the Spanish theme. The walls featured large prints of bullfighters and flamenco dancers. It was also a very comfortable space with lots of room between tables so we didn’t feel squashed in. The atmosphere was quite casual and relaxed with a couple of high bench tops overlooking the street. Light music played in the background which went with the relaxed and casual setting.

 

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To start off our evening, we ordered a jug of Sangria for the table. The Sangria was very well spiced with a good amount of clove and cinnamon flavours mixed into it. This Sangria had a good alcohol content which pleasantly surprised us along with sliced fruit pieces (apples and oranges) and ice. It wasn’t weak and watery like some of the other Sangrias we’ve had recently at other Spanish restaurants. Even though we ordered a jug we got more than our fair share – five glasses plus an almost full jug was brought to our table. This allowed each one of us to have two glasses for the evening. For $32 a jug, this is amazing value not to mention the very high quality.

 

We usually order paella along with a few tapas dishes at most Spanish restaurants we visit, however this time we decided to try a variety of dishes from the tapas and raciones (larger dishes) range.

 

 

Tapas (Entrees)

 

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Wild mushrooms with garlic, chilli and lemon consisted of a mixture of Swiss mushrooms and enoki mushrooms. The sauce was Asian inspired rather than of Spanish heritage which we found a bit strange. The mushrooms were mixed in a nice sauce made up of garlic, parsley and lemon with a dash of chilli.

It was a little spicy for our liking and most of the table thought it was quite an average dish. Even though we love mushrooms, we wouldn’t order this dish again. We thought that the restaurant could have done this dish in a Spanish style instead and they would probably have more success with it.

 

 

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The Grenada salad was served with mixed greens, pomegranate, orange, pepitas and Manchego cheese with a honey mustard vinaigrette. It was a really interesting combination of ingredients which complemented each other really well in the salad. The vinaigrette dressing highlighted the flavours of each ingredient in the salad. It was a small salad which was meant to be like a sample of sorts. The pepitas were toasted and together with the pomegranate gave a nice crunchy texture to the salad.

What really stood out with this dish was the different textures and flavours – the crunchy texture from the pomegranate and pepitas with the softness of the cheese; the salty flavour from the Manchego cheese, the sweet flavour from the orange, and the acidic flavour from the vinaigrette. It was also a very colourful green salad with orange, yellow and red hints. We were impressed how Carino Tapas Bar was able to take a simple green salad and embellish it so well.

 

 

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Next up was Crispy spiced calamari with lemon aioli served on a wooden chopping block. The calamari was really beautifully cooked; the meat was soft and melted in the mouth. Instead of being crumbed in breadcrumbs rice flour was used which made the dish light and wonderful to eat. Dipped in the aioli, the calamari tasted lovely and had the extra flavour from the lemony aioli. The sauce on its own was nice; it had just the right amount of lemon and garlic in it which complemented the calamari without being overpowering in any way.

 

 

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Pan-fried chorizo in a red wine reduction was the next dish to be served. The chorizo was cooked like they do in Spain which is quite crispy and solid. The chorizo was a little overcooked and a bit hard rather than being soft and succulent. The red wine reduction was very strong.

Both the ingredients – chorizo and red wine reduction – had very strong flavours which made this dish overpowering. It probably needs to be served with bread or something similar so you can appreciate the flavours, otherwise it feel like getting hit over the head with a baseball bat.

 

 

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XL tiger prawns with confit garlic, chilli and olive oil was an excellent choice. This dish was presented nicely with their heads on which were already removed for us along with the shells down the back. The prawns came in a lovely dressing of garlic, chilli, olive oil and a dash of parsley which complemented the prawns really well. It had a nice garlic flavour without it being too overpowering and the ingredients in the sauce were balanced really well. The prawns were really tasty and were cooked to perfection – succulent, moist and full of flavour. The size of the prawns were really big (XL) which made it feel like we were eating lobster tails.

 

 

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Our last tapas for the evening was Seared scallops in a Licor 43 and lime sauce. The scallops were lightly dusted with parsley and paprika. The liquor sauce was the highlight of this dish. The scallops were beautifully cooked – lightly seared on the outside. Some people might find the liquor and lime sauce a bit too strong, but we thought that it complemented the scallops really well given its light and delicate flavour.

This was clearly the best dish of the evening and everyone around the table oohed and aahed after they had eaten it.

 

 

Raciones (Mains)

 

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Chicken, lime and pistachio meatballs with romesco sauce was another lovely dish we ordered. The first thing that stood out was the presentation of the meatballs on a wooden chopping board. They were decorated with dressings of crushed pistachio and sumac along with a romesco sauce underneath. The romesco sauce is a tomato based sauce which we thought was a little too salty and overpowered the meatballs. Also the sumac added a bit of extra salt to the dish. If you had just a tiny bit of the sauce with the meatballs it tasted really good.

The meatballs itself were really tasty and well cooked. They were lightly fried on the outside giving it a nice brown crispy coating; yet the meat was moist and juicy on the inside. There were three different textures going on with this dish which mixed it up quite well. Overall, this was a nice meatballs dish done in a very unique way to normal expectations.

 

 

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Last up was Chermoula lamb cutlets served with eggplant (aubergine) puree and sumac. The lamb cutlets were crusted in a roasted cumin spice and cooked till crisp with a charcoal-burnt flavour to it. We don’t normally like our meat cooked this well but this actually worked really well. Even though the cutlets were really well browned on the outside, once we cut it open the meat was medium rare – soft, moist and succulent – as lamb cutlets should be. The roasted cumin spice gave the lamb cutlets a lot of flavour and really highlighted/complemented the strong lamb taste.

The eggplant (aubergine) puree was similar to a baba ghanoush; it was delicious, well prepared and complemented the lamb. It didn’t have a very strong flavour on its own but its smoky flavour went really with the charcoal-burnt flavour of the lamb cutlets.

The lamb cutlet dish was one of the highlights of the evening and the entire table really relished it.

 

We ended the evening with a couple of Spanish-inspired postres (desserts).

 

 

Postres (Desserts)

 

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Hot chocolate was ordered as a dessert however it seemed to lack a strong chocolate flavour. We would have liked the drink to be thicker and hotter than what it was. The hot chocolate was very average.

 

 

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Most of the table had Churros with hot chocolate sauce. Churros are Spanish donuts – long pieces of fried pastry dusted with sugar and served with an expresso shot of warm, dark chocolate sauce. The churros were cooked fresh so they were hot and crunchy. The chocolate sauce was a bit thinner than what we are used to but it was similar to the chocolate sauce that we had in Spain. It was in keeping with a traditional Spanish dessert.

 

Overall, the presentation of the dishes at Carino Tapas Bar was exceptional. They put a lot of effort in making the dishes look really nice. For example, the presentation on wooden chopping boards was lovely and in keeping with the Spanish theme. The dressings were lovely especially the sprinkles of the pistachios and sumac in diagonal lines across the meatballs was very appealing.

In the past, Carino Tapas Bar have had pretty bad online reviews regarding their customer service. A lot of people have complained that they’ve waited a long time before being served or receiving their meals. However this wasn’t the case with our table. As soon as we walked in, we were greeted warmly and escorted to our table straight away. Our staff on the night were very courteous and even explained to us which items were gluten free. The fact that the kitchen could amend the dishes to suit a gluten free diet was good to know. The waiting times were minimal; the service was friendly, attentive and prompt.

We really enjoyed our dinner at Carino Tapas Bar and we didn’t have any complaints. Even though it was a tad expensive the food was well worth it. We will definitely be re-visiting this restaurant in the near future.